Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences,
School of Architecture and Planning,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2000

Abstract
This thesis presents a new computer interface metaphor for the real-time
and simultaneous performance of dynamic imagery and sound. This metaphor
is based on the idea of an inexhaustible, infinitely variable, time-based,
audiovisual “substance” which can be gesturally created, deposited,
manipulated and deleted in a free-form, non-diagrammatic image space.
The interface metaphor is exemplified by five interactive audiovisual
synthesis systems whose visual and aural dimensions are deeply plastic,
commensurately malleable, and tightly connected by perceptually-motivated
mappings. The principles, patterns and challenges which structured
the design of these five software systems are extracted and discussed,
after which the expressive capacities of the five systems are compared
and evaluated.